ABSTRACT
During my undergraduate years at the University of Virginia, like most of my friends I had no clear sense of what I wanted to do with myself and, consequently, what I wanted to study. So I listened to my advisors, took classes that interested me, and just hoped I would find my niche somewhere. I ended up double-majoring in philosophy and foreign affairs, and even spent a semester abroad studying the European Economic Community with a British member of the European Parliament. After graduation I boarded a plane to Tokyo, where I taught for several years. While I was in Japan, I decided that I probably ought to get a master's degree. But in what? Because what I most enjoyed was reading, writing, and teaching, I picked English. Then, during my first year of graduate work at Old Dominion University, I stumbled into a classical rhetoric seminar on the advice of one of my professors, and there I found my niche.
